Airfoil
by Crescental
Summary: The time finally came where Loki casted a spell on one of the Avengers. It did get interrupted, but Tony still has to deal with huge bird wings on his back for who knows how long. If Tony could figure out what he wants, if they could stop being attacked, if they could get Loki to undo the spell, and if Clint could stop making bird jokes,then everything would be just great. No slash


**I enjoyed writing this, so I hope you guys enjoy as well ;)**

**Note that I am no bird expert. I did as much research as I could, but I think this still isn't very accurate so please excuse my lack of bird knowledge XP**

* * *

"Yep, Tony. Everything points to you being part bird," Bruce leaned away from the computer he had just been looking at, turned in his chair to face Tony, and pushed his glasses up his nose to hide his smirk at the comical look on the billionaire's face and how the huge wings attached to the man fluttered at the sentence.

"_What!?"_

"It seems the spell Loki casted on you was meant to, uh, turn you into a bird, but since Thor interrupted… Well, you're about three quarters human, and one quarter bird right now."

A certain archer spoke next, "Should I get the bread crumbs?"

Tony glared and he flipped Clint Barton the bird.

Bruce sighed at the two of them, "Just be glad you didn't get any more outward traits besides the wings."

"Yeah, just imagine Iron Pants with a beak," Clint let out a laugh. "Or better yet, chicken legs."

Tony couldn't stop his new wings from poofing angrily.

"Why the hell did Loki want to turn me into a bird!?"

"Are you seriously asking that?" Tony stubbornly refused to turn towards Clint, but the assassin could see the confusion on his face. The archer rolled his eyes and continued, "If you were annoying _us_ with the insults you were throwing at Loki, and we only heard you through the commlink, imagine how annoyed he was!"

The shy scientist added on, "The fact that most of the jokes were _bird_ jokes probably didn't help."

Tony snorted, "Did you guys not _see_ his outfit!? It was asking for it!"

Clint looked irritated, but his eyes and next statement told them that he agreed with Tony. "I wonder why he wore a different armor anyway."

"Maybe he had to wash it at a dry cleaning joint?" Tony's smirked and Clint chuckled.

Bruce let out an irritable sigh, but it failed to hide his amusement. "Whatever the reasoning, it didn't exactly help on your part," Banner lifted a hand, gesturing to the wings.

Prompted to look at the limbs, Tony unfurled one of his large wings, looking at it for the first time.

The tips were a dark brown, looking black at a first glance. The wing got lighter towards the top, turning from the inky brown, to a wine red, and then to a cherry red. There was a light, almost unnoticeable, orange hue at the top of wing.

"_Great_," he muttered inaudibly; the situation finally hitting him. Tony sighed and ran a hand over his face. His wing closed tightly to his back instinctively. The two appendages on his back pressed closely together, easily showing the stress he felt as he thought about how having wings would affect his life.

Tony turned back to Doctor Banner to see he was examining him. The billionaire's face was blank, but his wings shuffled nervously. He inwardly cursed in frustration at how the wings showed his inner emotions so easily.

Tony cleared his throat. "So, what was all that you found?"

The man with the alter-ego of the Hulk looked at the billionaire in confusion for a moment, and then he realized he was talking about all of the tests they had done earlier to see if there was anything else the spell had done to him.

Bruce quickly turned to one of the many large computers behind him.

A click of the mouse sounded. "Okay, the spell Loki cast, as I stated earlier, made you about a quarter of a bird."

Clint interrupted, "What kind of bird?" Tony raised an eyebrow at the other man, wondering why he cared; he sure didn't.

"I'm not sure. I think it's a predatory bird, and it's probably some kind of Asgardian bird. We could ask Thor to be sure-"

"Wait, why would Loki want to turn you into a _meat eating Asgardian bird_!? Why not a canary or something?"

The three shared uneasy looks. Tony shrugged, his wings moved with the motion. He grimaced when they rubbed uncomfortably against the fabric of his shirt they ripped through. The genius had been surprised the whole back of his shirt hadn't torn apart when his wings had sprouted from his back.

Then he noticed that other two men were looking at him oddly, he figured that his discomfort had shown; he wasn't sure if it had shown on his wings, his face, or both. Growing uncomfortable, Tony talked, trying send them the hint to ignore him and move on.

"Doesn't matter," the doctor looked at Tony, scrutinizing him. The billionaire concentrated on keeping his wings still to hide his emotions and moved his hand in a 'go on' motion towards the doctor. Bruce gave an uncertain nod before turning back to the computer.

"Alright, so where was I… Okay, you have a wingspan of thirty feet, so each wing is about fifteen feet."

The genius rolled his eyes, already knowing that; he had done the math.

But at Clint's whistle, Tony smirked and was unable to stop his feathery appendages from somewhat preening themselves.

In the pause that followed, Bruce hummed.

Tony frowned, wondering why the scientist had stopped.

Clint voiced their confusion, "What is it?"

Bruce peered over his shoulder at them and looked like he just remembered they were there. "Oh, uh, nothing. It's actually a good thing." Tony raised an eyebrow. Doctor Banner took his glasses off and rubbed the lenses on his shirt as he smiled up at Tony. "I'm no bird expert, but with that wingspan and these other… changes you got from the spell. Well, you could _fly_ if you wanted to."

When the billionaire's eyebrow only rose higher and the archer gaped, Bruce beckoned them over.

He pointed at the computer screen, gesturing at the scan of Tony they had taken earlier and to a diagram of a large bird next to it.

"See, you got just about everything you need in order to fly. You have the extra muscles, bones are hollow, etcetera. You even lost a little weight."

Tony's face was carefully expressionless, but his mind was thundering at the thought of him flying without his suit.

He covered his inner emotions in his face and body language like usual, but his wings were vibrating oddly now, like a little kid that could barely contain his excitement at the thought of going on a carnival ride. That kid was also on a huge sugar rush.

Tony, extremely annoyed by his wings at the moment, spoke quickly to try and derail his thoughts from the idea of _flight_.

"How is any of this a good thing?"

"Dude! You can_ fly_!" Tony scowled at Barton, angry that he had brought up the topic of flight again. His wings had just started to calm down, and now they were excitedly jumping and moving constantly again.

Clint's face was full of disbelief, and Stark briefly wondered why before it hit him.

He smirked, "Do I detect jealousy, _Hawk_eye?"

The archer scoffed, looking utterly insulted that he would say such a thing. Tony mentally applauded the man at his acting skills, though they weren't as good as his own.

Clint didn't directly answer, but his next statement was enough evidence to say that he was indeed jealous.

"You should be at least a little happy Stark. There hasn't been anything done to you to cause major problems."

"Well," they both turned back to the shy scientist that spoke up. "That's accounting to the possibility that there was nothing more done."

Apparently, the two men's puzzlement showed as Bruce continued. "We've only done physical tests. We don't know if he's changed some other way as well, like if he's changed mentally or if there are foods he can't eat now."

Clint automatically looked sad and sympathetic, but there was a mischievous glint in his eyes. Tony braced himself for whatever the archer was going to say or do, having a feeling Clint was about to get his revenge for saying that the archer had been jealous earlier.

"Tony, remember we're here to help you if you need us, so _don't_ feel ashamed to tell us that you're hungry and crave a can of worms."

Tony, though he would never admit it, had gotten a warm and fuzzy feeling in his chest when Clint had said that they were there to help him through this, but the feeling had instantly vanished with the worm comment.

He knew that Clint had meant no real harm with his statement and was just getting revenge for Tony's previous comment, so he was completely surprised — and _innocent_ — when one of his wings suddenly unfurled and slammed into Clint, sending the man across the floor.

Bruce and Tony were silent and frozen as they looked at the still figure splayed out on the ground.

A curse brought them out of their states of shock. They both examined Clint. Tony did so from a distance while Banner knelt down next to the man.

"He's okay. Just got the wind knocked out of him."

Knowing Clint was okay (a loud curse confirmed that), Tony allowed himself to smirk.

Though he hadn't been in full control of his wing in that instance, the billionaire knew he had been conscious enough to pull back on the hit, and he had still knocked down Clint, an _assassin_. He felt his smug smile was justified.

"What the hell, Stark?" Barton asked in a tone that had clearly meant to sound threatening but had been ruined by the heavy breaths in between each word.

Tony wisely made his smile go away as Clint sat up with a little help from Bruce, just because Barton was unable to attack him now didn't mean he wouldn't later.

The only man standing raised his hands defensively, "That, honestly, was not my fault." At Clint's disbelieving glare, he quickly continued. "They have a mind of their own." Which really was true, or it felt like the truth any way.

His explanation only seemed to worsen the situation as Clint's scowl grew even more heated.

Bruce sighed, "C'mon, it's not like you got hurt anything."

"Yeah, only his pride was damaged. No harm, no foul."

The scientist caught in between the two sighed and ran a hand over his face, knowing that there was hardly anything that was able to stop these two.

Clint, having regained his breath, stood up and leveled his glare at the billionaire across from him. "Did you just-"

"_Yes_, I did just say _that._ Get on the program bird-brain."

"_Oh,_ you are in _no _position to be making _bird_ jokes!"

Bruce took a deep breath, trying to push down the irritation he felt. If those two weren't going to calm down, he would let the Hulk beat some sense into them.

Just as Tony was about to make a comeback, the door to their left opened, revealing Natasha Romanov. She looked calm on the outside, but from knowing her a while, they (Clint especially) could tell that the redhead was mad.

They stared at her, wondering why she was there and why she would be angry.

And then they remembered.

Bruce had literally dragged Tony to his lab (with the help of Clint) the moment they had gotten back to the tower after the failure of containing Loki, who had miraculously escaped from Asgardian prison and then retreated to Earth to most likely get revenge.  
Banner had said it was essential that they figured out what exactly the spell Loki casted did to Tony besides the obvious of giving him large wings.

After much persuasion, Tony had begrudgingly agreed to partake in the tests, sarcastically saying he had always wanted to be a test subject, but the deal Tony had made them agree to was that only him and Bruce would be present during the tests.

He didn't want to be crowded and prodded like an actual test subject.

Luckily, Bruce had seemed to sympathize with the genius, and pushed the rest of the team out. Clint kept sneaking back in, so Tony, in a burst of frustration, had said he could stay.

Bruce's tests only consisted of doing a few physicals and having Jarvis scan him a couple times (Tony had deemed him the best science bro ever). Clint had not been as kind, and (for the sake of being annoying) had almost chased the billionaire with a needle, saying that they should do a blood test as well.

Dr. Banner had, thankfully, intervened saying that they would do a blood test later, claiming that finding physical changes were more important.

Then it had slowly led to the present.  
But through all of these events, they had gotten sidetracked and had forgotten that when Bruce had pushed the rest of the team out of his lab because of Tony's deal, he had promised them that they would tell them the test results as soon as possible.

Apparently, they had taken way too long, hence Natasha standing angrily in the doorway.

Scared out of their wits, the two men that were standing jumped when she spoke.

"Now if you two idiots are done, I suggest you head to the living room. Thor and Steve are getting antsy, and if you remember what happened last time-" Before Natasha even finished the last word, Stark all but sprinted out of the room; his wings flapped slightly to give him an extra boost.

They could still hear his curses and almost incomprehensible sentences (they could barely hear him say not my beautiful tower) when he was inside the the elevator, riding it up to the floor where Thor and Steve was.

Natasha turned around and faced the remaining men, crossing her arms.

Bruce took that as a cue to leave immediately, so he did, quickly standing from his crouch and running out the door. Ignoring Clint's pleas of not leaving him alone with the Black Widow was surprisingly difficult; he sounded really desperate. He only heard a little of what they said before he got too far away.

"Tash- l-listen! He said my_ pride_ means nothing! You know that-" A loud smack cut him off.

* * *

Natasha and Clint, who was nursing a cheek, got to the floor where the rest of the team was not even a minute after Bruce did.

There were three large couches circled around a coffee table; a TV was hanging from the reddish-brown wall across from the assassins. Steve and Thor sat on the couch on the left. Bruce sat at the one across from it. Tony was standing in front of the same couch, glaring at it, with his wings fluttering in what could only be annoyance.

They walked further into the room, and heard Bruce finishing his sentence.

"-lay on top of me. I really don't mind."

Clint and Natasha simultaneously raised an eyebrow. Natasha did so out of confusion, and Clint because of the perverted thoughts that ran through head. Regardless, they sat on the couch in between the other two; the only one facing the TV.

"No, I don't want to suffocate you." Tony seemed serious for a change, which really meant that his voice lacked the sarcastic tone, but Bruce still sent a look of disbelief at the billionaire, showing just how much he believed him.

"Then why don't I just lay on top of them?" Tony, wings and all, shivered at the suggestion. That was a definite no.

Barton chose to make his presence known then. He had a good idea of what they were talking about, but he just had to have them clarify. And he may of just wanted to comment on how wrong their conversation sounded to him.

"Care to explain what you two are going on about, or are you going to let me keep imagining naughty stuff?" Natasha slapped him, Steve and Bruce blushed, Thor chuckled, and Tony was, oddly, silent.

Everyone either raised an eye ridge or gaped at the newly winged man.

When he stayed quiet, Bruce decided to explain to the two assassins.

"Well… Tony's not quite sure how to sit on the couch."

"You're kidding me right? You're a genius, and you can't figure out how to _sit down_?" Clint let himself feel proud that he got a reaction from the billionaire, but he regretted it as Tony turned to send a glare with eyes that held barely hidden panic.

Then it hit all of them; this was _really_ stressing Tony out. At first, it did seem sort of silly that he was reacting so badly to not being able to comfortably on a couch, but then they realized that was _exactly it. _

Stark was most likely thinking about having wings permanently. If he couldn't sit on a couch, what else could he not do, like wear the Iron Man suit?

And they were spot on.

One downside of being a genius was that your brain never shut up. When he had started to sit down like any normal person would and suddenly realized he _couldn't_ because of the wings on his back, his mind had run rampant on what other things he would have problems with now.

Once he had managed to calm down enough to actually think of ways he could sit down, and then the first idea he had thought of hadn't worked, he had spiraled downwards again. He struggled to control his breathing, and as much as he tried, he couldn't subdue the quivers of his wings.

It sucked that he had become so much more prone to panic attacks ever since the Battle of New York.

Luckily — or unluckily, depending on whose point of view it was — the team noted his shaking wings and slightly uneven breathing, and it was enough evidence of Stark's anxiety for them.

They noticed this at the same time; Steve Rogers was the first one to act.

"Why don't you have them wrap around you?" Tony almost jumped at the sudden voice.

When he registered the Captain's words, he grimaced. If Steve was giving him suggestions of how to sit, then he really wasn't hiding his panic attack well. And he also didn't want to look like he was cuddling with himself, but he tried the position anyway. He was up for anything.

Tony sat down, and his wings curled around him.

One was above the arc reactor, and the other one wrapped around his torso. He immediately hated how insecure he looked at the moment, and even though they were his own, he hated how constricted he felt.

Tony knew that this position really wasn't too bad, and that he was overreacting (well, overreacting even more). But his mind was still running a mile a minute of what his future would be like with these _things_ on his back.

He shook his head in a no. The team didn't comment on his distress. And if they thought he was being ridiculous since that position worked, they didn't complain.

Clint noticed how the back of the couch was far too high for Tony to throw his wings over it, so he voiced a different idea. "What if you lay them along the couch?"

"That's what we were saying when you walked in, but Tony said it would _suffocate_ me," Bruce pointedly looked at Tony, who threw his hands up into the air. His wings followed.

Clint would die before he ever admitted it aloud, but the large wings posed in the air like that was actually _very_ intimidating.

Thankfully, the wings fell down to the billionaire's side before he noticed that he had alarmed his team — even Thor_. _They all shuddered to think how Tony would brag if he found out.

They were brought out of their thoughts when Tony talked.

"Have you seen how big these things are? You'd drown underneath them."

They couldn't tell if he was being honest.

"Yes I have, but I really don't think they would suffocate me." To prove Bruce wrong, Tony spread his red limbs out, both wings far succeeded the ends of the couch.

The other Avengers felt their eyes widen when all they could see of Banner was the top of his head and his legs and feet. The rest of his body was made invisible by the large wing covering him.

Bruce's hands appeared above his head to then gently push the top of the wing down just so he could make his face visible, but the wing was now hanging off of the couch slightly.

Tony sent the other scientist a look that said 'I told you so' and began to move his right wing towards himself, but Bruce halted the movement by patting it.

The genius stared at the spot he had touched. It was going to be hard to get to used to having feeling in a way he never had before, especially on something that technically shouldn't be there.

He barely caught Bruce's comforting words.

"It's alright. I don't mind."

The winged man snorted, "_Really_? These things aren't exactly light. They've got to be flattening you right now"

"Nah, they're like thick feathery blankets." Everyone chuckled at how insulted Tony looked; he wasn't too fond of being called a blanket.

Ultimately, Tony made the decision of where his wings went. He lifted his right wing and threw it onto his lap.

The billionaire took a deep breath and blinked, registering that he was sitting comfortably... on a couch… _with_ wings. Yes he was taking up more than half of the couch, but it still _worked._

He cursed inwardly; he really did freak out over nothing. He was a_ genius_ and he panicked because he had been unable to sit down with wings.

Tony took it over to the fact that his brain was fried from the fight with Loki that had taken place less than three hours ago, the fact he was still just getting used to the _idea_ of having wings, and the fact that his brain had refused to shut up and had continuously envisioned his future with these things.

His mind was clearer now though, and he realized how stupid he had been. Tony was grateful that the team was acting like they were oblivious to his distress and helping him out, but still, he had been on the verge of a panic-attack in front of them.

And now they were obviously trying to not look at him. He cleared his throat; eyes immediately turned to him.

"Bruce do you wanna…"

"Right. So from the few tests we did, I can say that Tony is about a quarter of a bird right now."

The team almost jumped in surprise at the sudden change of mood and topic. Though they were glad to finally get to know everything that happened to Tony, they didn't like how they felt like they were forcing Tony aside or abandoning him in some way.

They were unaware that Tony was all but happy to move on and get absorbed into a different discussion, even if he didn't like what they were discussing, it was still better than the awkwardness they had felt earlier.

"Do you know what kind of bird?" Tony nearly face palmed, but he refrained from doing so as Natasha was the one who had asked. Why were both of the assassins so interested in what kind of bird it was? He honestly didn't care; he had wings either way.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. But I think it's an Asgardian bird. The wingspan and the coloring don't match up with any Earth species." Thor perked up at that and was now examining the wings with a critical eye. Tony couldn't stop his wings from flicking nervously.

Thor nodded, "Aye. You are correct Friend Banner. It is a fearsome creature that enjoys feasting on the fingers and toes of others."

The others stilled, but Tony smirked. He sure as heck knew he was never going to eat _that_, but it would be fun to spook a certain archer. "Hey Clint, I think I'll take you up on that food offer." He struggled not to laugh at Clint's face.

Bruce smiled, being the only other person in the room to get the joke. He coughed into his hand to clear the laugh that threatened to come out.

Natasha seemed as stoic as usual, but the twitch of her lips hinted that she understood the joke. But her voice was clear of humor, "Do you know why Loki would have wanted to turn Tony into… that kind of bird?"

"Loki has always had a… _peculiar _sense of humor."

Everyone raised an eyebrow at that, unsure if peculiar was the right word.

After a few moments, Steve (of course!) went right back to business. "Is any of this going to…" He waved his hand struggling to find a word, "_hinder_ him in the field in any way?"

Bruce shook his head in a no.

Steve was clearly happy with that, but a frown appeared on his face as Clint spoke.

"Did everyone just forget the giant wings he has on his back? I don't see how you're going to fit them into those iron pants of yours, Stark. I don't see this working." Honestly, it hurt a little that Clint doubted that he would be able to work it out. In the six months the Avengers had lived in the tower with him, he had grown to like the archer and somewhat respect him, despite how annoying he could be.

But he felt uplifted as the man with the alter-ego of the Hulk backed him up. "Tony will figure it out eventually, you know that Clint."

Barton turned his eyes to Tony, and the billionaire had just noticed how his wings had somehow _wilted_ when Clint had said his opinion.

The assassin seemed to of noticed as well as he looked slightly guilty. "No, I don't doubt _you, _Tony. It's just — look, this can go one of two ways. They can be useless, or they can be vulnerable. They can either be locked underneath the suit, and judging by how they're shaking, they don't like that very much. Or they can be outside of the suit where they're vulnerable."

"And either way you're going to have to learn how to use them," everyone looked at Steve, who had spoken in a voice filled with authority.

Tony had been glaring at Clint after he had pointed out how his wings had been shaking, but he had moved it to Steve when he had _commanded_ him to learn to use his wings. His glare slowly faded as he repeated the Captain's words in his head.

When he said to learn how to use them, did that mean learning how to —

"Yes, that includes learning how to fly. Get on the program bird-brain." Tony glared at Clint, mad that he had used his own words against him and mad that he had read him so easily (twice!).

Tony inwardly sighed. He grew so excited at the thought of _flight_ without the suit, but he didn't want to grow attached to the wings. That would lead to so many complications.

The only female in the group voiced her doubts, "But is learning how to fly worth it? I can't see the point of him using his wings to fly with the suit on, and if he even could."

"Well, I think if he were to get training, he would be able to fight with them if he needed to and using them to fly would make them less of a target since they would be moving, so they wouldn't be as vulnerable outside of the suit. As for it weighing too much…" Steve dropped off, looking at the billionaire with eyes that begged for him to finish the sentence.

And then it suddenly clicked. Having wings was just adding an unknown variable to the equation. Now he just needed to solve it and work around it. He blamed his lagging brain.

Tony smirked, finally feeling like himself, even with the foreign things still on his back. The smile was far too similar to the Cheshire Cat's.

"I like a good challenge."

Steve and Bruce smiled, seeming to somehow know that Tony had just gotten back on track, but the others eyed him warily, confused at his sudden determination.

But they could all see the clogs working behind his eyes. His mind was on overdrive.

"Thor, how did Loki get to Earth?" They were startled and greatly puzzled by the sudden change of topic.

But they were even more startled (even Clint and Natasha, though they didn't show it) when a voice that was not Thor's answered, "He used the Tesseract."

Tony and Bruce whirled around, the others only turned their eyes and heads to see, lo and behold, Nick Fury casually exiting the silver elevator.

"How the hell did you get in here Fury!?" Tony so did not want to deal with the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. right now, and he sure as heck didn't want him to know that he had wings.

The couch he was sitting on was facing away from Fury, so the man with an eyepatch couldn't see his feathery appendages, although the end of his left wing was hanging off of the end of his couch in Nick's line of sight.

Maybe if he could slowly — a cough caught his attention and he looked up to see Fury standing right next to the splayed out wing.

Tony's reaction was spontaneous. He jumped backwards; his wings flapped madly and pushed him further away from Fury. Once he was standing next to Bruce and had calmed enough to regain his senses, he noticed how his wings were puffed like an angry or _defensive _bird. He tried to smooth the feathers down by taking deep breaths and calming while keeping an eye on the man before him.

The billionaire clutched at his arc reactor, "Jesus Nick!"

He glared at his gaping teammates, daring them to say something. They simply closed their mouths and turned to Fury, who only looked at Tony, blinked twice, and then looked away.

Tony had just managed to get his wings smooth, but at that, they only flared again. He thought Fury would at least lift an eyebrow or stare at the sight of him having wings. There was no way he couldn't be at least a little surprised.

"What the hell!?" He shouted as a way of question, but he also just wanted to shout to get rid of the anger he felt towards himself at his ridiculous reaction.

Nick turned back to Tony, and was somehow able to know that the shout had been asking why he wasn't surprised.

"I've had my theories."

"How? I've only had them for a couple hours!"

"Jarvis?" Tony stiffened at that. Fury better not of hacked him. "Care to show them the news footage?"

The AI didn't respond, but the TV to the right of them flickered on.

A brunette in a blue dress stood to right of what looked to be very poor camera footage that was basically a mass of colors. She started to speak, quickly absorbing the room's attention.

"_Sadly, all that is known of the fight that took place earlier today between the Avengers and Loki, the supposed god of mischief and the one responsible for the Battle of New York that took place seven months ago, is because of this very poor camera footage we managed to recover."_

The footage was paused as the woman pointed at and summarized the picture. The first person in the film she referred to was Loki, who was a barely discernible black and purple figure. They still couldn't figure out why he had changed his armor; Thor never changed his.

"_As you can hopefully see, Loki is holding some sort of staff and looks to be aiming it at Iron Man." _The footage played, and they watched as a ball of blue light started to form at the end of the staff. When it got to about the size of a tennis ball, a mass of silver, red, and a hint of gold — Thor — slammed into Loki.

The blue light launched into the air, barely managing to hit the flying figure of red and gold.

Even the poor camera was able to capture how Iron Man looked to be convulsing, visible even inside the suit, as he fell.

Tony tensed, remembering the searing pain that had started in his back, but had quickly spread to his chest and then to his bones.

He remembered feeling the inability to escape the confines of his suit, and he remembered falling — something he had not wanted to revisit.

Then he had felt something catch him and a blur of voices surrounding him.

The genius noticed how his thoughts were corresponding with the video on TV as the Hulk jumped and caught him. The other Avengers immediately rushed to him, and with the help of Jarvis (Tony recalled hearing the familiar British voice in his daze), they found the switch that would unlock the suit.

The moment the suit had opened, Tony had bolted upward. He had curled into himself, held his arms, and tried to hold in a scream as the new wings bursted from his shoulder blades and tore through his shirt.

It was a good thing that the camera that had captured this was so bad; it saw Tony's wings as big black blobs. He couldn't imagine what the public would do if they found out he had wings now.

A quinjet had then arrived, and they had carried the disoriented Tony and his suit to the vehicle.

"_Many are wondering what Tony Stark's condition is, and many are worried of where the God of Mischief has gone."_

Those were the reporters final words before the TV turned off.

The silence was ruined by Nick. "Anyone care to explain why I wasn't debriefed on the situation?"

"We felt that figuring out if Tony was okay was our first priority, sir," Steve replied, and as much as Tony would deny it, that actually brought a warm feeling to his chest.

The man with an eyepatch continued, showing no emotion at the Captain's answer, "And is there anything I should be informed about?"

"We didn't find anything problematic besides being unable to fit in the Iron Man suit currently, but it should be noted that he can most likely fly."

The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. nodded at the female assassin. "Then as of right now, Iron Man will be taken off of the team roster." The only sign of Tony's inner anxiety was the slight tension of his wings; he had known that Fury was going to say that and had been fully prepared for the stab in the gut. But his earlier panic was resurfacing.

Tony took two calming breaths before registering that Fury was still talking.

"-the Iron Man suit is upgraded to these new conditions."

The billionaire blinked, "What?"

Nick sighed, annoyance evident, "You'll be put back onto the team roster once you get training for those wings and once the Iron Man suit is made to accommodate them."

Tony hated how much the relief he felt showed in his wings. He wasn't being replaced, and he wasn't being permanently taken off of the team. Great, he was being stupid again; Fury had never actually said he would be taken off the team _permanently._

"And I trust that the suit will be upgraded quickly?"

Tony nodded. "Good. And once you've fixed the suit and had a decent amount of training, you'll do a team exercise so I can see how well you perform."

The whole team was practically gaping now. "And Stark, mind explaining why you wanted to know how Loki got to Earth?"

Normally, Tony wouldn't of answered and would've kept it to himself, but normally, his brain wasn't filled with so much shock and exhaustion.

"I think that if we take the readings of the Tesseracts energy, then we can use it as a reference and possibly track him." Of course, that depended on Loki using the Tesseract and carrying it with him, but it was a start, even if being unable to do better deeply bothered Tony.

Nick Fury nodded, "I'll have a team help you and Doctor Banner gather the data." Not that they needed it, but again, with a stupefied brain, Tony couldn't gather the energy or the wits to say no.

Fury started to walk to the elevator; they followed him with their eyes.

"I expect to be notified of any problems or when you are ready for the training exercise," he finished speaking just as the elevator doors closed in front of him.

"...What just happened?" Tony didn't feel as pathetic for being so spooked and shocked at that. Clint worked underneath the guy, yet he was still surprised from the whole thing.

The billionaire shrugged in response, and it seemed to get the others out of their frozen state.

Steve cleared his throat, "So, Tony, care explaining what that... _thing_ with Nick was about?"

Tony held in a sigh, leave it to Steve to having to know every little thing about his teammates. He remembered the first couple months of living with the team in the tower. Steve had kept getting in his space, yes he had been nice about it, but it had bothered Tony all the same. It had taken a while for the super soldier to realize that the genius needed his privacy and didn't want some things to be known.

This was one of those things.

Tony wasn't one hundred percent sure why he had jumped backwards and flapped his wings to get away from Fury (he swore that if he had kept flapping his wings like that, he would've flown eventually), but he did have a guess.

Fury and him didn't get along in the slightest, and he had felt — he wasn't so sure now — that Fury would of kicked him off of the team any chance he got. Now that he thought about it, it was stupid for him to think that he would kick him off the team for having wings, but if Nick had wanted him off, he would have found some way to use Tony's wings against him. And that was why Tony hadn't wanted Fury to see his wings in the first place.

The genius figured that his reaction to Nick had been one of the things Bruce hadn't been able to detect with the tests they had done.

He had felt threatened, so he had done the first thing a _bird_ would of done, flee. And that aggravated him to no end.

Tony didn't want the others to know how much being on the team meant to him, even if that might've already been ruined because of his damned wings, but if he could do anything to preserve his secret, he would.

He flipped a hand towards Captain America, "Nope."

Steve looked dubious, "You sure?"

"As sure as…"

Crap, he really was out of it; he couldn't even come up with something to snark back with! He flicked his hand again, acting as some sort of dismissal.

The others eyed him worriedly.

"Friend Stark, perhaps it would in your best interest to retire to bed?"

He would've responded with some sort of snide remark about not being old, but all of his leftover energy suddenly left him.

The billionaire gracelessly fell onto the couch, barely managing to not land on Bruce. He didn't have the strength to care that his wings were bending oddly and uncomfortably as they were stuck between his body and the furniture, bending with the fold of the couch.

Tony shook his head in response to the God of Thunder. "No, we're not done yet."

"We're not?" He managed to roll his eyes at Clint.

"Thor, I know you're not an expert in magic, but do you know the specifics of the spell Loki used? Like if it's going to progress or disappear over time, so on."

Thor eyed him with apprehension and doubt on his face.

"What I say will not be complete truth. It will be based on my little knowledge."

"That's fine, I just want an idea."

Thor grimly nodded, knowing Stark would not be happy with the information.

"I'm afraid it will not disappear over time, as those spells produce effects that are usually much more extreme and potent, used to cause pain. As of the moment, I cannot say for sure if this will progress, but I am hopeful that it will not as you seem to not have gained any more changes since the spell was cast. If no further changes are being made, then I am sad to say that Loki is your only hope of returning to normal."

There was silence. Tony broke it, as nonchalant as ever, "So the spell has either stopped, in which case this is permanent until we can find Loki, or I could still be changing into a giant bird-man?"

Thor didn't have any response to the man's choice of words. "Aye. But if it is of any comfort, if the spell was progressing, you would most likely be in deep pain."

Everyone grimaced, not sure if the words were reassuring.

"Fantastic," Tony shakily stood; his exhaustion showing. He winced at the painful feeling in his wings. He regretted sitting like that, and he knew he wouldn't do that again. "Well, I'm going to bed."

They all stared at him like he had grown two heads. He blamed his normal human body functions for demanding sleep and making him announce that. Tony Stark never just walked off to bed.

He tried to saunter to the elevator to get to his floor, but he was failing miserably.

Tony sure had a long list of things to blame.

The genius froze in his tracks.

And he could blame every single thing on that list for making him forget to call his lovely and beautiful girlfriend to tell her he was alright as she no doubt saw the news.

"So, who's going to call Pepper?"

* * *

**So like it, hate it? What parts do you like, dislike?**

**Did this seem overdramatic or is it a good start? **

**Sorry if the couch part didn't seem like Tony, I just found myself writing it, and I can't get rid of it :P So in other words, sorry if anyone if OOC**

**and sorry that this chapter is mostly dialogue, action will start up soon and there will hopefully be a butt ton of it. **

**Anyway, so I have most of the plot planned out, and there are a ton of huge events but I don't have enough small events. So if you guys have any small thing you want to see happen, please tell me, either PM or review. If I like it and can make it fit, I'll give you credit and add it in ;)**

**And when I say small, I mean like they watch a movie or something**

**I really hoped you guys enjoyed!**


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